Ross

We left Ormiston this morning with a plan to visit Glen Helen Gorge, Stanley Chasm and Simpsons gap for some waking opportunities, before heading back to Alice Springs, where we have 4 nights booked in the Discovery Park which reportedly has several heated pools, water slides and plenty of activities for the kids. We are very much looking forward to showers >1min and freshly cleaned clothes.

Access to Glen Helen is currently closed, it looks like the caravan park is getting a revamp. There may have been a trail from the entrance road down to the gorge itself but it wasn't marked so we opted to continue and try some other walks instead. We briefly stopped off at 2 lookouts with great vistas of the mountains, Neil Hargrave Lookout and Point Howard Lookout, then kept on. We turned off the main road to head to Standley Chasm, but after travelling 10km along the access road we were met with a closed gate and a sign saying it was closed for the day due to staff attending a funeral. Understandable, although it would have been good to have the closes sign at the turn off, and turning around on a narrow two lane country road with a caravan wasn't ideal. We'll aim to come back another day while we're in Alice Springs, as it's not far out of town. We had planned to stop for lunch there, so given that wasn't an option we decided to just head straight to Alice Springs, set up camp and have lunch and relax for the afternoon. We'd been out of mobile reception for 4 days, so we were bombarded by notifications once we got back into reception, including some messages about issues with our place in Canberra which required a few phone calls when we arrived.

We spent the late afternoon in the pool, then joined some others on the campground hill for nibbles and a sunset viewing. Our campsite is right next to the playground which is an absolute bonus for the kids - time will tell if it's a pro or con for us adults.Read more